Improvements in technology have changed the way people interact with their surrounding environment. These improvements provide opportunities and abilities for users of wireless technology to obtain numerous types of application programs, data files, etc., in almost any location. Today, there is a large amount of content available for downloading from the Internet, and a large number of applications supporting various file types. For example, a user may download a music video clip to her mobile handheld device while at a neighborhood park on Saturday, and may proceed to play it on her device for purposes of entertaining herself and those around her. The same user may be at an airport on Monday morning to take a business trip and wish access to business reports for purposes of giving a presentation. Accordingly, the user receives an email on the same mobile handheld device from a co-worker that includes the desired business reports as an attachment.
Improvements in memory density (e.g., the amount of memory capacity provided per unit area) have enabled users to store an increasing amount of data on devices so as to accommodate these and innumerable other scenarios. Memory capacity is still finite, however, and there are practical limits as to how much data may be stored on a given device at any particular moment. These limits are particularly pronounced in the context of mobile devices, as recent trends suggest that smaller devices are desirable.
By way of illustration, and returning to the previous example, the emailed business reports may require more storage space than is currently free in the mobile device's memory(ies). Although the user may be able to delete one or more currently-stored items to make room for the business reports, this is often undesirable. For example, the user may have recently taken a number of high resolution pictures of the birth of her friend's baby and not wish to lose those images.